Duke is a serious Final Four contender
We just may have kept the Duke Foot Injury from ending our season for the third straight year
Miami is really backing into the tournament phase
So much for those little Tools and their VAUNTED twelve-guard lineup, at least until next Saturday
Still not going to miss Maryland, College Park at all
Just enjoying the ride
I have some gripe or other but will hold it for now

Here are my somewhat cynical thoughts about the most worrisome 38-point blowout I've seen in a long time:

* Unless Coach K is playing 12-dimensional chess and sandbagging what the team will really look like without Nolan in there, the first half gave lots of cause for concern. Scheyer was average, at best, but is pretty clearly not the answer at PG. K inserted Davidson to try to give the offense some flow. It didn't work. It looked like we're still trying to play drive-and-kick on offense when we don't have any players that can do that. The bigs can pass...

* Duke got driven on a lot in the man-to-man. The only reason that Findlay didn't score more was that the bigs made pretty decent adjustments rotating over. Miles had some thunderous blocks, but if any of the Findlay players could hit a pull up jumper, we'd have been in trouble. We were much better defensively in a zone. Our wings simply weren't able to keep people in front of them. Now, I've been told that this was "the way the defense is planned" -- to funnel the ballhandlers towards the shotblockers, like Duke did when the Landlord was in residence. Only problem with that comparison -- those teams did indeed force players to drive towards Shelden -- but the keyword is "forced." Even Lee Melchionni was quick enough to at least stumble into position to make that work. Against Findlay, it was weakside help -- with the keyword being "help." Maybe we can get away with it. I wouldn't count on it. And anyone with a pull-up J will do well against us. Our most effective defense was the 3-2 zone, with Lance at the top, where he can actually do some good work.

* The offense resembled a game of keep-away at times. The team was SO much bigger than Findlay that it almost couldn't help but be. But we showed very little of that pretty high-low passing that worked so well against Pfeiffer. Instead, the bigs tried to feed the post from the wing, which worked only because we were bigger and stronger. Against a team with any athleticism, those passes were turnovers.

* Dawkins and MP2 didn't add anything. They didn't do anything particularly horrible. Yes, MP2 had a few blocks, but they were mostly "big guy swat on a weakside rotation that only worked because the guy was 5'11" deals. Kelly was adequate (and has a great FT touch).

* When Smith re-entered the game in the 2nd half, the team took on a whole new character. They ran well, the offense flowed much more effectively, and they looked reasonably good.

* Singler is a beast. He's playing more and more like Mark Alarie every day.

* Apparently, after the game, K was allegedly extremely pleased with the team on both ends of the floor. This team has a lot of potential, and we have some aspects that few teams can match -- but we really need to execute an offense smoothly to have a chance to do much of anything -- and get really good at playing matchup zone. Early returns: this is a transition year, and we probably won't do anything to shake the "Duke can't get past the Sweet 16" meme again this year. But I'm willing to be proven wrong.